Badger App giving me serious anxiety

[HoneyBunnii]

Hello, i was wondering if anyone was successful in going back to having everything done on paper rather than having to use the rubbish badgercare app? I miss having the appointments sent as letters and having the book..
Badger App has cancelled and rearranged my appointments without notifying me many times and whenever I call up to re book any cancelled appointments I find that they are cancelled AGAIN after around 30 mins!
I got passed around on the phone 4 times today just to rearrange the time for an ultrasound scan that they had cancelled and rearranged again and once i had the time sorted i checked my app and found it cancelled and just broke down into tears.

It is really affecting me as i had a miscarriage last time and now whenever I am looking forward to my scans or appointments i find them cancelled.
I am also disabled and have to attend with my husband and so have to arrange the appointments whenever he is off but because of this app it is making it impossible!

I feel like when we got appointments via letters the hospitals didnt cancel easily brcause they would have to call us but now after this app they just cancel and rebook whenever they like, knowing that they wont have to deal with an angry patient.

Has anyone been successful in changing back to the old way?
Sorry for any misspellings as i am writing this while my toddler is playing hairdresser with my hair at the same time 😖😫

@HoneyBunnii sorry to butt in. I'm in Lancashire and also used BadgerNotes during my pregnancy. Rather than PALS you will get better help and response from Maternity Voices Partnership. They are like PALS but for maternity services. They helped me so much when I had issues with midwife care, as they passed my email to the midwife in charge and I got an excellent response.

The trouble is, I was on Badger in mid-2021 and had been admitted with severe norovirus, I was having to show the midwives notes on my phone app because it wasn't working on the computer. I even joined the maternity Voices group after birth to try and effect some change with both that and the piss poor care on the antenatal ward but they were more worried about making aure inclusive language was used than improving anything actual life and death related 🙄.
Hand-wringing and making excuses for something which is fundamentally unfit for purpose doesn't help anyone but seems to be an ongoing issue across the country. There must be a way to force the app developer to do better under their contract to provide an adequate service, or something?

@PensionPuzzle that's so disappointing to read. MVP were great for me and I had hoped that they were a good organisation across the board.

I also had a miscarried pregnancy initially showing on Badger. There should be a midwife in charge of IT and Badger within each service. I think they called him the Digital Midwife at my hospital. He went into my Badger account to sort this out, as he was the only one who could.

@snapple21 well after reading all these experiences i guess there is no point in contacting anyone because this app is just going to be rammed down our throats regardless.. even though you are saying that the app should get better i really doubt it.
Just like the time i wemt for my antenatal appointments when i was pregnant with my DS and had to wait 2 hours to be seen at times and was told it was because of new systems and that "this wont always be the case" and then this time with my pregnancy, 2 years later, i am still having to wait from an hour to two hours and upon asking why there are delays I am again being told it is a "new system being used and there will be improvements"... so how can i trust being told that the App will improve when your new systems still have not adjusted 2 years later?

Im not having a go at you i know it isnt your fault but i hope you can see how frustrating it is when all us pregnant ladies want is a stress free pregnancy like old times. Just go, get checked, have a chat, write notes and just come back home and not have to worry until the next appointment.

Another thing that I hate about this app is that there is no way for you to contact your personal group of midwives. You have to call the hospital and then they transfer you to a random midwife who is in a rush to get something else done. There should be some kind of chat feature instead so if you have any worries you can connect with a local midwife who will address the problem or atleast reassurance because alot of us have had alot of stressful pregnancies because of previous problems and miscarriages.

You cant even note your preferences down.
Atleast in the book you could write notes and the midwife would take a quick look before allowing you to leave.
Now i will have to tell my midwife on her face while her student midwife is there that I dont want a student midwife involved in any of my care and that will be really awkward!
Last time i wrote it in my notes in my book and it didnt seem awkward for anyone.

I know this is a long post but i feel it needs to be said.
I mean.. look at all these posters whom are agreeing they hate the App?

Hi @HoneyBunnii sorry just getting back to you. I'm in Lancashire too!

I used the badger notes app and even when baby was here, I turned up for the heal prick appointment at the hospital to be told I had the wrong day, and my husband and the midwife were saying maybe I had read it wrong.. I had not, it had been cancelled and changed - luckily I found an email that had the original date/time, but it had to be re-arranged anyway.

I had the same midwife at the doctor's surgery, so had her work number, this is why I mentioned this earlier. It was easy to text for the both of us!